Coming off an upset of Nebraska, Texas (7-2, 4-1) had to battle to the end to beat a feisty Iowa State team that gave the Longhorns a scare after trailing by 14 points with 91/2 minutes left.

Iowa State (4-4, 1-4) tied it at 41 on Darren Davis' 1-yard touchdown run and Mike McKnight's extra-point kick with 3:20 left. But Major Applewhite, who passed for 345 yards and two touchdowns, drove the Longhorns down the field to get Stockton in range.

''You give Major Applewhite three minutes, 20 seconds and three timeouts to win the football game, and just about every time we've seen it, he's responded,'' Texas coach Mack Brown said.

Starting at the Texas 28, Applewhite hit Ryan Nunez for 38 yards to the Iowa State 34. Hodges Mitchell, who carried 33 times for 158 yards, then ran the ball seven straight times to get to the Iowa State 1-yard line and the Longhorns called time with 4 seconds remaining.

Stockton, who had kicked field goals of 27 and 35 yards earlier, calmly split the uprights from the right hash mark to give Texas the victory in its first game in the state of Iowa

''Going into the season, we thought two or three games are going to be decided by the kicking foot,'' Applewhite said. ''That's why Kris steps out there and works as hard as he does. He's the hardest working kicker in America.''

Iowa State might be on the nation's most heartbroken team. The Cyclones have lost three games by a total of 14 points, including a 35-28 setback to No. 6 Kansas State.

''We just can't get over that hump,'' Iowa State defensive back Ryan Sloth said. ''We need one of these games like this that we win. Then we could get some momentum.''

Texas appeared to have the game won when Stockton's 35-yard field goal put the Longhorns ahead 41-27 with 9:33 left. But Iowa State's J.J. Moses returned the ensuing kickoff 80 yards to the Texas 20 and three plays later, Ennis Haywood ran 8 yards for a touchdown.

Iowa State got the ball right back when freshman linebacker Chris Whitaker's sack of Applewhite on third down forced a punt, and the Cyclones quickly covered 66 yards in five plays for the tie.

Sage Rosenfels' 34-yard pass to a diving Michael Brantley put the ball on the 1 and Davis squeezed in on the next play, helped by four of his linemen pushing from behind.

''We thought it would be that kind of game,'' Brown said. ''Everything they tried just about worked. They hit us on everything they could possibly hit us on.''

Applewhite completed 30 of 40 passes for 345 yards, including touchdown strikes of 41 and 4 yards to Montrell Flowers. It was his fifth 300-yard game of the season and the 19th straight time he has thrown for more than 200 yards.

The Longhorns held Darren Davis, the Big 12's leading rusher, to a season-low 67 yards in 24 carries. But the Longhorns' concentration on Davis opened things up for Rosenfels, who was 11-of-20 for a career-high 291 yards and two touchdowns.

''We had heard before the game they didn't respect our passing and were going to stop Darren,'' Iowa State offensive lineman Ben Bruns said. ''If you want to put all those guys in the box, fine. That leaves our receivers one-on-one and Sage made some great throws.''

Texas scored on four straight possessions after Iowa State took a 20-10 lead late in the first half and got another touchdown off a fumble.

Applewhite's 4-yard TD pass to Flowers made it 31-27 with 2:56 left in the third quarter and Texas scored again 10 seconds later. Maurice Gordon smashed into Moses on the kickoff return and knocked the ball loose. Beau Trahan picked it up at the 5 and sprinted unmolested to the end zone for a 38-27 lead.